tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46351425973936307592018-03-15T10:09:42.350-04:00LaVonne Neff > LIVELY DUSTOn human flourishing and the common goodLaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.comBlogger616125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-69509534113780897832018-03-14T19:09:00.000-04:002018-03-14T19:09:11.039-04:00Midlife: the best of all possible ages?
The other day a friend of mine, who is 45, was offended when someone referred to her as middle aged.
This seems odd, since female life expectancy in America is now approximately 81. Or since a woman who has reached the age of 45 can expect to live another 40 years. Or since the ages at which an American is most likely to be employed are between 20 and 61. By all numeric indicators, my friend LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-53636194954036174392018-03-05T09:28:00.000-05:002018-03-05T09:28:03.492-05:00Remains of the Day
A Nor'easter swept through Baltimore on Friday, uprooting trees and downing power lines as it went through.
Our lights went out at 2:30 in the afternoon. The inside temperature began to fall. I put a second down comforter on our bed.
We took the dog and our electronics to our church and spent a warm evening and morning there. And then the power at the church went out.
Fortunately we have a LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-54666543196229575012018-02-01T15:51:00.000-05:002018-02-01T15:51:00.042-05:00THE NATURE OF THE BEAST by Louise Penny: a chilling conversation
I love Louise Penny's novels about Three Pines, Québec: a Brigadoon-like village near the Vermont border full of friendship, good food, warm fires, beautiful scenery--and the occasional murder. Penny can terrify you, though more often she makes you chuckle. With a perspicacious eye for character, she can also amaze you with her insights.
I recently came across this chilling conversation in TheLaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-38713834650508684572017-11-15T13:28:00.000-05:002017-11-15T13:28:48.143-05:00A Trump wall everyone will love
Here's an idea for President Trump and his supporters. Let's build an impenetrable border wall around maybe a third of the United States. Make sure that no immigrants can enter. Make equally sure that no Democrats (or Republicans, for that matter) who favor universal healthcare can enter. Likewise, don't allow any Democrats (or Republicans) who favor gun limitation and regulation to breach the LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-35049899609376858672017-10-03T14:16:00.000-04:002017-10-03T14:27:23.631-04:00THE BRIGHT HOUR by Nina Riggs
Ancient Egyptians brought skeletons to their feasts, exhorting guests to drink and make merry while they still could. American Puritans in the 17th century kept skulls as warnings to sober up and focus on the afterlife. Memento mori, the gruesome reminders were called: remember that you must die. People died suddenly, and young. They wanted to be prepared.
Nina Riggs did not feel prepared LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-22040734937750093772017-10-02T11:48:00.000-04:002017-10-02T11:48:59.696-04:0010 reasons I'm giving up Facebook
Some of my friends use Facebook judiciously. Some, like me, spend far too much time on it. And clearly some, also like me, feel worse and worse because of what they see there.
If Facebook is making your life better, far be it from me to criticize. I suspect, however, that it is stripping joy from my life. Here are ten reasons I'm planning to stay off Facebook indefinitely.
1. Time on LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-46753766888480009252017-08-03T10:08:00.000-04:002017-08-03T10:08:39.372-04:00RIP editor Judith Jones: She brought us Anne Frank, Julia Child, and many others
[Jones & Child; photo by Boston Globe]
From yesterday's New York Times:
Judith Jones, the editor who discovered Julia Child and advanced a generation of culinary writers that revolutionized cooking and tastes in American homes, and who for a half-century edited John Updike, Anne Tyler, John Hersey and other literary lions, died on Wednesday at her summer home in Walden, Vt. She was 93.
Nearly LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-18985830972039025032017-07-23T18:15:00.000-04:002017-07-23T18:15:06.740-04:00RIP Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, 30 May 2000 (more or less) - 22 July 2017
Tiggy yesterday morning
The rescue ladies weren’t sure we deserved Tiggy.
Her first two years had been rough. Someone had taken her to an overcrowded Chicago animal shelter because, they said, they had “too many dogs.” When the rescue ladies found her there, she was matted and frightened and obese—a common ailment in dogs who have had poor nutrition. Spring her from the shelter, they thought,LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-16987591470110802702017-05-12T09:27:00.002-04:002017-05-12T10:01:31.258-04:00How to get perfect avocados nearly every time (public service announcement)
California Girl here. Been eating avocados voraciously for over 65 years. Could have started even younger: some of my grandbabies, as it happens, loved them from the get-go.
Not hard to choose. Not hard to know when ready. Do this and you'll rarely go wrong.
1. Buy only rock-hard avocados. If you need something for today's salad, get something else instead. Ripe avocados in grocery stores areLaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-41861185531719733972017-05-12T09:27:00.000-04:002017-05-12T09:29:07.275-04:00How to fix an avocado without drawing blood (public service announcement)
From what I read online, apparently a lot of people are cutting themselves wide open while merely trying to fix guacamole.
This is foolishness, folks.
I am so bad with knives that for years my husband begged me not to take a knife skills class at the community college. He was afraid he'd never see me again.
And yet, though I have eaten avocados several times a week for decades, I have never LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-80073438827585515702017-05-06T14:21:00.000-04:002017-05-06T14:32:58.404-04:00A healthcare system that works - is it too much to ask?
[William Blake, Pestilence, c. 1780-84]
Most of my Facebook friends are proclaiming the evils of the AHCA, the new GOP healthcare bill. I agree with them that it is at best deficient and at worst cruel, and I hope it never becomes law (Senators: do your job!).
But I fear that my AHCA-hating friends—as well as those who proclaim the evils of the ACA (Obamacare)—are ignoring the bigger picture.LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-15188179918751461822017-03-26T10:19:00.000-04:002017-03-26T10:19:33.356-04:00Happy Mothering Sunday to unconventional mothers
Happy Mothering Sunday to U.K. friends who have mothered me - Pat, Sue, Rosemary, Christine, Margaret - though some are younger than I am and all are too young to be my actual mother (isn't everybody)? Mothers come in various forms, often when they are most needed.
I just read two books that, to my surprise, turned out to be about mothers.
Much of Trevor Noah's Born a Crime is a tribute to LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-4878747908224315532017-03-23T18:56:00.000-04:002017-03-23T19:49:23.466-04:00Needed in America: a huge healthcare experiment
[Thomas Eakins, The Agnew Clinic, 1889]
So the House Republicans are having a really hard time coming up with a healthcare plan that all Republicans are willing to support. Apparently during their seven years of saying no to the ACA, it never occurred to them that they might one day be in a position to propose something better. They just never saw this coming.
Oh, they'll pass something all LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-45631967170178200422017-03-08T10:27:00.001-05:002017-03-08T10:27:49.700-05:00If ignorance is bliss, Congressional Republicans want us all to be deliriously happy
Question: What effect will the Republican healthcare proposal have on (1) the number of people who have health insurance and (2) the federal budget?
Congressional Republican answer: We don't know and we don't care.
Question: Shouldn't we appoint an independent counsel to investigate all those possible connections between Russia and the Trump campaign?
Congressional Republican answer: Not yet-LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-42655972672112231302017-02-07T08:34:00.000-05:002017-02-07T08:34:13.729-05:00Maybe Trump WILL make America great ...
A lot of people are worried. Terrified, even. With Trump in the White House, they believe, we're flirting with World War III, a second Great Depression, a tyrannical destruction of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans except white billionaires with shriveled consciences.
Actually, that doesn't sound so far-fetched.
But before succumbing to a full-fledged panic attack,LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-33434109658797524062017-01-30T11:18:00.000-05:002017-01-30T11:18:27.002-05:00Spiritual sustenance for terrifying times
[Joshua Banbury and the church choir sing
"Lord, Make Me an Instrument of Thy Peace"]
A friend asked on Facebook, "How are you going to sustain yourself emotionally and spiritually in the coming months and years?" I never thought of responding, "I'll go to church."
If people who call themselves Christians could bring us Donald Trump and his evil minions, I was inclined to stay home, walk my LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-36973871799672191922016-12-26T16:00:00.000-05:002016-12-26T16:15:09.036-05:00Looking for light: Christmas 2016
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God...
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
The Gospel according to John, chapter 1
Take those words literally, spiritually, metaphorically, mythically, mystically, poetically, or howeverLaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-8109560731694936742016-12-05T10:35:00.000-05:002016-12-05T10:35:09.240-05:00How does your net worth compare to Donald Trump's?Here's a fascinating video using the Morgan State University football field to compare the age of the earth - approximately 4.5 billion years - to the length of time humans have been on the planet.
You could use the same visuals to compare Trump's net worth - approximately $4.5 billion, according to some estimates (and much more according to Trump) - to other Americans' net worth.
Trump's net LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-40378816396310309172016-10-08T16:54:00.000-04:002016-10-08T16:54:19.153-04:00Powerful Men: when philandering becomes misogyny
[Pablo Picasso, The Harem, 1906]
In its March 13, 1998, issue, Commonweal magazine published an article I wrote just as Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky began dominating the news. As far as I know, it received only one comment. Someone thought my language was crude.
I am reposting that article the day after the Washington Post released a video in which "Donald Trump bragged in LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-376863268917090692016-09-01T16:43:00.000-04:002016-09-01T16:43:31.515-04:00Maryland: The Clueless Driver StateWe hadn't driven in Baltimore for more than a few minutes before we noticed that there was something seriously weird about the drivers. They weren't aggressive or angry. They seemed to float along in their own little bubbles, completely unaware of other drivers, traffic signs, or lane designations.
We were commenting on this when we drove onto a bridge and saw a sign that explained it all:
LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-74709586534186886092016-08-22T14:25:00.000-04:002016-08-22T15:48:47.156-04:00And explaining doesn't seem to help...
Some Republicans in Congress.
Headline in the Washington Post, last year:
Half of American whites see no racism around them
Headline in the Washington Post, today:
Sexism is over, according to most men
Right.
Let's look at the 114th Congress, shall we? (Wonks: you can check out the stats here.)
LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-50525000805238649792016-08-16T10:42:00.000-04:002016-08-16T10:42:02.771-04:00Where industrious ants get dinnerYou know Aesop's fable about the ants and the grasshopper. Conservative libertarians think it's scripture.
One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.
"What!" cried the Ants in surprise, "LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-67727279204493597752016-08-08T09:27:00.000-04:002016-08-08T09:31:04.561-04:00FINDING MYSELF IN BRITAIN by Amy Boucher Pye
If you're an American and spend much time in the U.K., somebody will undoubtedly quote you something that apparently George Bernard Shaw never actually said:
"England and America are two countries
divided by a common language."
Once upon a time I was the American editor for a British publisher, and I heard that aphorism frequently--probably because part of my job involved translating LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-50003229073494125052016-07-31T14:20:00.003-04:002016-07-31T14:20:30.628-04:00In case Mr Trump couldn't make it to church this morning...
If Donald Trump, who is technically a Presbyterian, attended church this morning (not unthinkable - he did attend an Iowa church one Sunday just before the caucuses), here is the Epistle reading that he probably heard:
If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4635142597393630759.post-91266398751081794362016-05-02T11:59:00.000-04:002016-05-02T11:59:24.970-04:00Picturing dementia: empathy, insights, and the occasional belly laugh
[One of Chast's unforgettable cartoons]
Some 25 years ago my parents and one of their best friends, Gertrude, started showing signs of dementia. As their conditions worsened, Gertrude’s daughter Ann and I began trading morbid geriatric jokes. Laughing helped us face the daily struggles of caregiving: it felt so much better than crying.
In 2014, New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast published a LaVonne Neffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12662198791868400418noreply@blogger.com0